FURTHER THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HOLY SYNOD’S TEACHING ON FASTING IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

Hieromonk Nikolai Sakharov

FURTHER THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

ON THE HOLY SYNOD’S TEACHING

ON FASTING IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

Chantilly,  October 7, 2026

Introduction

Looking back at those blessed days of the Holy and Great Council, only now the Church gradually comes to realization of the significance of the decisions taken then, which turn out to be prophetic in many respects, defining the future for the course of the history of the Orthodox Church. This prophetic vision of the Great Council in no least concerns the issue of Fasting. By the Divine providence and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit it was singled out by the Orthodox Church as crucial for today and universally for generations to come. And rightly so. The Holy Synod reasserted and subsumed the tradition of the Holy Fathers about fasting. And our contemporary application of this tradition emerges a bond of unity of the Church. As our Staretz Archimandrite Zacharias teaches: “Through this act of obedience to the Church, in observing the appointed fasts, we enter communion with the saints and the whole body of the Church.” The Holy Synod provided also theological perspectives that are yet to be explored. 

St Sophrony has taught all of us: 

Any ascetic act, including fasting, that does not proceed from the awareness of its theological or dogmatic content, is far from perfection. 

So, what is a theological content that lies behind the document of the Holy Synod on fasting? 

1. Ecological dimension of Fasting 

This issue may look to some of lesser importance, as they would say “Nowadays the Orthodox Church faces many challenges, many other burning issues to be solved. Why fasting, then?” I believe, the theological intuition of the Holy Synod goes far beyond the texts it produced. And this very fact that the Synod left aside some other seemingly important topics, and focused on the issue of fasting — is a message in itself. Indeed, there is no more burning issue in our days for modern mankind than fasting. Why? Because the modern world is plunged in excessive consumerism. Today’s world obsession with consumption is destroying the natural resources of our planet as never before. We live through an unprecedented ecological crisis in the history of mankind, which is in essence a crisis of humanity. Father Sophrony writes: “External historical events are, in essence, the manifestation of the inner spiritual state of humanity.” The focus on the issue of fasting by the Holy Synod is thus, an ecological declaration, a loud wake up call to modern humanity. Our personal act of fasting is a living ecological manifesto, an act of respect towards creation: “I refuse to exploit it for individual pleasure.” As Christ did not come to be served but to serve, we, humans, are called not to be served but to serve and to cultivate the “very good”, as the Bible says, Creation, entrusted into our human hands by its Creator. The message of the Holy Synod implies that the moment we start fasting, we stop acting as consumers who abuse the creation. In God’s original plan, we are only stewards of Creation, just as Adam the first gardener of creation, in the Garden of Eden. “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden TO WORK IT and KEEP IT” (Gen. 2:15), and not “to exercise his freedom by abusing it” — as Metropolitan John Zizioulas puts it. For St Sophrony this acute ecological awareness was an indispensable part of all orthrodox asceticism. In 1960s Fr Sophrony wrote to Archbishop Nikolai (Eremin): 

I have indeed persistently demanded—and continue to demand—that monks should be attentive to all material things if they wish to acquire prayer. I expect them to treat every object with great care, so that this care becomes a monk’s second nature. Such careful attitude—toward any material objects [toward creation] —is a starting point of becoming more attentive towards our brother, and subsequently, more reverent towards God. I insist that such a mindset—wherein we keep our conscience clear not only in relation to God to people but also to all material things— is an absolute necessity if we want to bring our ascetic life closer to perfection.

Why? Because the paradise of the first-created man consisted not in the mere abundance of food to be consumed, but in his relationship with and attitude to creation —namely, a Eucharistic attitude. This mode of relating to the created order is fundamental to our human identity. As Metropolitan John Zizioulas famously observed: “identity is defined by relationship”. Unlike animals, who interact with nature out of sheer biological necessity, humans are uniquely capable of relating to creation as a distinct “other” that is to be loved and respected. Ultimately, “it is through his unique relationship with Creation that Man fulfills his “royal priesthood”, when he renders honour to creation as the supreme work of the Creator and offers it back to its Author: “Thine own of thy own we offer unto Thee in all and for all.” Thus, fasting becomes a celebration of creation that is manifested in our Orthodox Eucharistic consciousness. And it is this Eucharistic consciousness that the Holy Synod and its texts aim to restore in modern man, advancing ecological awareness to a new level. 

2. Anthropological dimension of fasting

However, the theological significance of fasting as well as the danger of consumerism do not stop here. The avarice of modern man destroys not only the world, the creation, but above all it destroys humanity within humanity, destroys within us that, what makes us human, plunging the world into the jungles of egoism, where everyone guards a piece of themselves against everyone else. A fearful future to contemplate, an angry way to live. The Orthodox Church keeps safe its children from this dehumanization, animalisation of mankind by keeping appointed fasts. 

St Sophrony considered the ability to fast as a landmark of humanity, as something that distinguishes us from animals, who cannot fast. Thus, the ideas of the Holy Synod explore the very root of our human ontology. According to the story of creation in the book of Genesis, the unique commandment — to fast, to abstain from forbidden fruit “thou shall not eat” — was given to no other creature, not even to angels, but to man alone — to Adam and Eve — as gift and as their unique identity as humans. Is it not this ability to overcome material animalistic exigencies, that makes us truly human? That is why Fr Sophrony would say: “Fasting is not a sort of somber sacrifice, it is a celebration — a joyful, triumphant celebration of our humanity”. By every act of fasting, we reiterate our human identity as freedom from subjection to the material elements, to the cosmos, we reiterate the victory of our humanity over our inhumanity, sharing thereby in the victory that Christ proclaimed: “Be of good cheer for I have overcome the cosmos.” Thus, this distinguishing mark of humanity — the ability to fast — also constitutes our lordship, dominion, supremacy over all material creation— Gen 1:26. “Let us make man… and let them have dominion… over all the earth”. Fasting demonstrates our dominion over our own physical material nature and along with it over all natural elements of the whole Creation. Thus, by fasting we celebrate also our lordship over the rest of creation. No other ascetic act expresses it so concretely. The Holy Synod says “Orthodox spiritual life without the spiritual feat of fasting is unattainable.” Why? Because without fasting our humanity is unattainable. 

3. Hypostatic dimension of fasting

The Holy Synod asserts (paragraph 3) “Fasting cannot be reduced to simple abstinence from food.” The theology goes much deeper and articulates an important principle: “a true fast is not to be selfish, that is self-denial.” If we explore the act of abstinence through the prism of the theology of personhood, as fundamental to St Sophrony’s vision and to our Orthodox theology overall, we begin to see in every act of fasting a much deeper meaning: we manifest our capacity of transcending our own human ego. John Zizioulas writes: “The deprivation of fasting, then, is a deprivation of our self-love.” By fasting we break the confines of our limited egoistic individualism and self-centredness, we turn away, in fact, from our own “self” “I” “Ego”, and move towards “opening up to the infinity of the “Other” as Metropolitan John Zizilouas would say. We transform ourselves from “biological individual” into becoming a person. If we delve into the ontology of humanity in its primordial design, and reconsider the commandment “to abstain”, given to Adam and Eve, through the prism of the theology of person, we see an entirely different picture: “Thou shall not eat” was not a restrictive, limitative principle, but something that kept their ability to include the Other into their own being, to keep the relationship with this “Other”, to make space within themselves for the will of the Other. Thus, the commandment turns out to be a life-giving principle and a hallmark of their relational identity, relationality, and thereby their hypostatic mode of being, as persons and not individuals. Through this commandment they stood in relationship with God, securing His presence in their lives. It protected them from closing up into their own selves, from turning into non-relational self-enclosed individuals, from sliding into Luciferic egoism. Thus, we can say: “For us too — fasting is indeed a celebration of our hypostasity, personhood.”

4. Christological dimension of fasting. 

These ideas are implicitly present in the theology of the Holy Synod when it stresses a Christocentric perception of fasting: “The forty-day fast of the Lord exemplifies fasting for the faithful.” If we speak of the Christological dimension of fasting, not many scholars, not many Holy Fathers dwell on an important point: what was the very first, voluntary act of Christ in His ministry of salvation after Theophany? It began with fasting, the Μεγαλύτερη Σαρακοστή in history: the 40 days fast in the desert, as the fundamental start in the economy of man’s salvation. Moreover we see the cardinal importance of it in this fact, that neither Christ’s miraculous birth, nor His teaching in the Temple at the age of 12 years, not even His Baptism at Jordan, not even the voice the testimony of the Father “Thou are My beloved Son” and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, but 40 days of fasting that alarmed the pan-cosmic forces of evil and provoked them to the first direct confrontation with Christ. For them His fasting pointed to His divine identity: “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights… the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God…” (Mt. 4:2-3). For us too fasting also a first step towards our deification to become sons of God. For us too fasting is a confrontation as St Paul puts it not with our “flesh and blood, but with principalities, and powers, of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:12). We participate in Christ’s battle as well as in His universal victory over the world, when according to Christ’s words “this kind goes out of us by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21).

The Holy Council highlights our unique Orthodox approach to Fasting, that you will not find in any other religion. The Christocentric approach to fasting excludes any idea that fasting rules are a mere checklist of imposed dietary requirements, to which we blindly adhere. In Christ, when He fasted 40 days it was a voluntary act, an intrinsic imperative of His soul, led by the Spirit in the wilderness, and even more into a metaphysical desert of love: a space where were only the Father and Him and nothing and no one else. The intensity of His existential focus on the Father, in the ectasis of love-eros, has reached such a measure, that nothing and no one could tear Him apart from the Father: His “self” was forgotten, together with natural biological needs. Thus, His fasting was a natural expression of love, an expression of interpersonal relationship. This context of interpersonal relationship of our Orthodox asceticism is fundamental for us. The relational character of our fasting is defined by the Gospel itself: “When the bridegroom is taken away, they will fast” (Mt. 9:15). Without this interpersonal – relational — context, fasting and asceticism are meaningless: in the Orthodox tradition, there is no place for mechanical unrelated practices like in the non-Christian East. The Holy Council states: “the true fast is inseparable from unceasing prayer and genuine repentance” before God. Even within Christianity our Orthodox concept of repentance is unique, being free from a legalistic approach. As St Sophrony would say: “Repentance is not an intellectual assessment of the individual perfection. Just as sin is a spiritual notion and not legalistic. The very concepts of repentance and of sin exist only where there is personal relation between God and man. Sin is always a crime against the love of the Father.” 

5. Liturgical dimension of fasting

Christ has revealed to us the potential of our human love towards God, of the fulness of the communion between God and man. In the desert His whole being was “towards God” προς τον Θεον as John’s Gospel put it, when His Father has become the only content of His being in its totality. That is when “Thou” becomes “I”. That is what it means to be a person. Christ’s fast was a complete metaphysical “βάπτισμα” — that is total “merging” into the Person of the Father “with all the heart, the soul, with all the might/ that is with the body”. This same reality shapes our lives too. Just as Christ we are not merely baptized in water; we are baptized into the Person of Christ. Through his forty-day fast Christ demonstrates the human being as realizable only as a liturgical being in personal communion with the personal God. We commune not bread and wine, we commune the Person of Christ in His totality. Fasting and Holy Communion are the ongoing realization and actualization of that baptism into Christ within us. As St. Paul writes, for those baptized into Christ, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Thanks to the Holy and Great Synod this personalistic perception of fasting, as of any ascetic and liturgical act, is now deeply embedded into our orthodox consciousness. St Sophrony used to say: “What is not liturgical is not authentic.” That is, what is not aimed at the Eucharist and at Holy Communion, has no ascetical value in itself. Because according to the Synodal text only the Eucharist “is the most profound expression of the essence of the Church”. Thus, fasting emerges as a part of what St Sophrony would call “liturgical asceticism.” In general, in the Orthodox Church there no asceticism that is independent of the Liturgical life. And fast therefore is not a dieting aimed at trying to achieve ethical perfection. In the life of St Mary of Egypt the Holy Communion was the Alpha and Omega — the start and the finish — of her ascetic life, which was in itself as a preparation for the ultimate communion at the hand of elder Zosima at her departing, when her soul finally united with the Beloved Lord for the whole of eternity. 

Conclusion

The theological arsenal of the Great Synod is inexhaustible. Due to the shortness of time given I have had to omit important aspects of the theology of fasting when the Great Synod asserted discernment, prudence (economia) as the new universal canon of Orthodoxy. Neither have we had time to explore the eschatological dimension of the act of fasting, as St Sophrony used to say “what is not eschatological is not authentic”, or to dwell further on the rich theology of personhood which runs through documents of the Synod. 

One thing remains to be mentioned. Once His All-Holiness mentioned that “Orthodoxy is a sleeping giant”, and the Holy Synod has marked the first might awakening of this giant, taking Orthodoxy into the future of mankind as its integral part.

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photo: Nikos Papachristou